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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
James's own baadasssss 'tude hasn't backpedaled a bit since he gave the world a hotfoot in his first novel, Negrophobia, four years ago. Now, in step with the pop African American icons of the '70s he celebrates in this crass but wickedly funny survey/memoir, the author struts and jives his way through an energetic hodgepodge of interviews, reminiscences and original fiction. The offerings here range from the essay "The Blackman's Guide to White Women with the Amazing Power of Voodoo" through a high-toned interview with blaxploitation goddess Pam Grier to James's musings on the influence on his life of books by Iceberg Slim, author of Pimp. The numerous sidebars alone, which offer capsule reviews and/or plot summaries of scores of blaxploitation films from Shaft to Cleopatra Jones and The Black Gestapo, make this a classic of psychotronic scholarship. James's 'tude grates at times?for example, his insistence on calling whites "whytes"?but his apparent aim is to provoke more than denigrate, and he incorporates the work of several white artists, most prominently that of cartoonist Ralph Bakshi, into his raucous mix. Given its subject, this eclectic, iconoclastic, profusely illustrated work is just as it should be: a savvy, smirking toss of a black gauntlet at white middle-class values and culture.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Of all the lovably outrefeatures of 1970s America currently being rediscovered, the "blaxploitation" film is one of the most deserving. Featuring funky soundtracks, pimp-suit fashions, and oodles of attitude, such flicks gave audiences fast action within simple plots involving cartoonish characters straight from some 1970s cultural garage sale. James proudly runs through those and other defining characteristics of the sassy film genre, in the process profiling modern black cinema pioneer Melvin Van Peebles; actor Richard Roundtree, portrayer of black superagent John Shaft; underrated actress Tamara Dobson (Cleopatra Jones); and the ultimate godmother, lubricious Pam Grier. Profusely illustrated, engagingly written, James' book would be worth having just as a checklist of the great black films of the funk decade, but it also features analyses of individual films and, among the interviewees, the interesting inclusion of white cartoonist Ralph Bakshi (Coonskin, Fritz the Cat, etc.), who draws a creative connection between his work and both George Herriman's comic strip, Krazy Kat, and the music of John Coltrane. Informative fun for the funky at heart. Mike Tribby
See all Editorial Reviews
James's own baadasssss 'tude hasn't backpedaled a bit since he gave the world a hotfoot in his first novel, Negrophobia, four years ago. Now, in step with the pop African American icons of the '70s he celebrates in this crass but wickedly funny survey/memoir, the author struts and jives his way through an energetic hodgepodge of interviews, reminiscences and original fiction. The offerings here range from the essay "The Blackman's Guide to White Women with the Amazing Power of Voodoo" through a high-toned interview with blaxploitation goddess Pam Grier to James's musings on the influence on his life of books by Iceberg Slim, author of Pimp. The numerous sidebars alone, which offer capsule reviews and/or plot summaries of scores of blaxploitation films from Shaft to Cleopatra Jones and The Black Gestapo, make this a classic of psychotronic scholarship. James's 'tude grates at times?for example, his insistence on calling whites "whytes"?but his apparent aim is to provoke more than denigrate, and he incorporates the work of several white artists, most prominently that of cartoonist Ralph Bakshi, into his raucous mix. Given its subject, this eclectic, iconoclastic, profusely illustrated work is just as it should be: a savvy, smirking toss of a black gauntlet at white middle-class values and culture.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Of all the lovably outrefeatures of 1970s America currently being rediscovered, the "blaxploitation" film is one of the most deserving. Featuring funky soundtracks, pimp-suit fashions, and oodles of attitude, such flicks gave audiences fast action within simple plots involving cartoonish characters straight from some 1970s cultural garage sale. James proudly runs through those and other defining characteristics of the sassy film genre, in the process profiling modern black cinema pioneer Melvin Van Peebles; actor Richard Roundtree, portrayer of black superagent John Shaft; underrated actress Tamara Dobson (Cleopatra Jones); and the ultimate godmother, lubricious Pam Grier. Profusely illustrated, engagingly written, James' book would be worth having just as a checklist of the great black films of the funk decade, but it also features analyses of individual films and, among the interviewees, the interesting inclusion of white cartoonist Ralph Bakshi (Coonskin, Fritz the Cat, etc.), who draws a creative connection between his work and both George Herriman's comic strip, Krazy Kat, and the music of John Coltrane. Informative fun for the funky at heart. Mike Tribby
See all Editorial Reviews
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